Name
Title | ||
|---|---|---|
Examining The Effects Of Network Externalities, Density, And Closure On In-Game Currency Price In Online Games |
Abstract | ||
|---|---|---|
Purpose - Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) create quasi-real social systems in which players can interact with one another, and quasi-real economic systems where players can consume and trade in-game items with virtual currency. The in-game currency price, an important indicator of a virtual economy, is highly contingent on players' behavioral interaction in MMORPGs. The purpose of this paper is to adopt a network perspective to examine how topological characteristics of social networks in an MMORPG, namely, network externalities, density, and closure, would exert impacts on the in-game currency price.Design/methodology/approach - Players' behavioral data were collected from a popular MMORPG in China on a weekly basis for 52 weeks. With a time series analytical approach, the empirical model for the price function of in-game currency was estimated with vector autoregression.Findings - The results show that the number of core avatars and network density are positively associated with in-game currency price, while network closure has a negative effect on in-game currency price. However, in-game currency price is found to have no significant relationship with the trade volume of the currency.Originality/value - This study fills in an important research gap by investigating factors influencing the in-game currency price of MMORPGs from a network perspective, which contributes to the existing literature of network effects and advances our understanding about how players' interaction will influence the dynamics of a virtual economy. The findings could offer useful insights for online game companies to better understand their players' social interaction and consumption behavior. |
Year | DOI | Venue |
|---|---|---|
2017 | 10.1108/IntR-07-2016-0201 | INTERNET RESEARCH |
Keywords | Field | DocType |
Network externalities, Online games, Network density, Network closure, Price function | Social relation,Economics,Social network,Microeconomics,Network effect,Vector autoregression,Social system,Virtual currency,Marketing,Virtual economy,Currency | Journal |
Volume | Issue | ISSN |
27 | 4 | 1066-2243 |
Citations | PageRank | References |
3 | 0.39 | 17 |
Authors | ||
7 | ||
Name | Order | Citations | PageRank |
|---|---|---|---|
| xuexin xu | 1 | 3 | 1.40 |
| Xiaodong Yang | 2 | 58 | 17.09 |
| Junhua Lu | 3 | 20 | 3.30 |
| Ji Lan | 4 | 25 | 2.09 |
| Tai-Quan Peng | 5 | 74 | 7.82 |
| Yingcai Wu | 6 | 1223 | 61.26 |
| Wei Chen | 7 | 1193 | 92.00 |